Sounded good at the time. Did they over speak? Did they fail to implement because their rhetoric was empty from the start? Did they lack the talent to accomplish their specified goals?
No one pushed them into this. They spoke out of conviction and then mostly fell on their face.
No wonder members of their own Party are ticked.and no wonder this is the year for the outsider. to make hay. (See 1 below.)
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An important city has fallen to The Taliban, "Put-in" continues to stick it to Obama in Syria, Americas's image shrinks and we remain without a strategy and impotent and yet, were this incompetent to run again I suspect voters would re-elect him.
While this has been happening, Obama is prepared to close our last uranium facility and this after Hillarious agreed to the sale of our other uranium plants to a Russian company.
Obama is opposed to nuclear weapons and yet, is not convinced Iran is building any. (See 2 below.)
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Dick
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1)This was an article by John Boehner and Mitch McConnell in November 2014, promising that they were going to "get Congress going" and saying they would prove the skeptics wrong.
There's no crying in Hardball, either.
Now We Can Get Congress Going
Reform the tax code, redefine ‘full time’ as working 40 hours a week, move on the Keystone XL pipeline—there are plenty of tasks ahead.
Americans have entrusted Republicans with control of both the House and Senate. We are humbled by this opportunity to help struggling middle-class Americans who are clearly frustrated by an increasing lack of opportunity, the stagnation of wages, and a government that seems incapable of performing even basic tasks.
Looking ahead to the next Congress, we will honor the voters’ trust by focusing, first, on jobs and the economy. Among other things, that means a renewed effort to debate and vote on the many bills that passed the Republican-led House in recent years with bipartisan support, but were never even brought to a vote by the Democratic Senate majority. It also means renewing our commitment to repeal ObamaCare, which is hurting the job market along with Americans’ health care.
For years, the House did its job and produced a steady stream of bills that would remove barriers to job creation and lower energy costs for families. Many passed with bipartisan support—only to gather dust in a Democratic-controlled Senate that kept them from ever reaching the president’s desk. Senate Republicans also offered legislation that was denied consideration despite bipartisan support and benefits for American families and jobs.
These bills provide an obvious and potentially bipartisan starting point for the new Congress—and, for President Obama, a chance to begin the final years of his presidency by taking some steps toward a stronger economy.
These bills include measures authorizing the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which will mean lower energy costs for families and more jobs for American workers; the Hire More Heroes Act, legislation encouraging employers to hire more of our nation’s veterans; and a proposal to restore the traditional 40-hour definition of full-time employment, removing an arbitrary and destructive government barrier to more hours and better pay created by the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
We’ll also consider legislation to help protect and expand America’s emerging energy boom and to support innovative charter schools around the country.
Enacting such measures early in the new session will signal that the logjam in Washington has been broken, and help to establish a foundation of certainty and stability that both parties can build upon.
At a time of growing anxiety for the American people, with household incomes stubbornly flat and the nation facing rising threats on multiple fronts, this is vital work.
Will these bills single-handedly turn around the economy? No. But taking up bipartisan bills aimed at helping the economy that have already passed the House is a sensible and obvious first step.
More good ideas aimed at helping the American middle class will follow. And as we work to persuade others of their merit, we won’t repeat the mistakes made when a different majority ran Congress in the first years of Barack Obama’s presidency, attempting to reshape large chunks of the nation’s economy with massive bills that few Americans have read and fewer understand.
Instead, we will restore an era in which committees in both the House and Senate conduct meaningful oversight of federal agencies and develop and debate legislation; and where members of the minority party in both chambers are given the opportunity to participate in the process of governing.
We will oversee a legislature in which “bigger” isn’t automatically equated with “better” when it comes to writing and passing bills.
Our priorities in the 114th Congress will be your priorities. That means addressing head-on many of the most pressing challenges facing the country, including:
• The insanely complex tax code that is driving American jobs overseas;
• Health costs that continue to rise under a hopelessly flawed law that Americans have never supported;
• A savage global terrorist threat that seeks to wage war on every American;
• An education system that denies choice to parents and denies a good education to too many children;
• Excessive regulations and frivolous lawsuits that are driving up costs for families and preventing the economy from growing;
• An antiquated government bureaucracy ill-equipped to serve a citizenry facing 21st-century challenges, from disease control to caring for veterans;
• A national debt that has Americans stealing from their children and grandchildren, robbing them of benefits that they will never see and leaving them with burdens that will be nearly impossible to repay.
January will bring the opportunity to begin anew. Republicans will return the focus to the issues at the top of your priority list. Your concerns will be our concerns. That’s our pledge.
The skeptics say nothing will be accomplished in the next two years. As elected servants of the people, we will make it our job to prove the skeptics wrong.
Mr. Boehner (R., Ohio), is the House speaker; Mr. McConnell (R., Ky.) is currently the Senate minority leader.
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2)This is a story of Obama shutting down our last centrifuges … after Hillary approved the sale of the lion’s share of our uranium to the Canadian firm that sold it to Russia, it all seems so complete now …We gave control of our uranium to Russia and now we have shut down our ability to make enriched uranium here in the US. Not only do our enemies have control of atomic means of defense, we have no ability to make any more even if we wanted to , which we don’t … not as long as there is one more illegal to feed, house clothe educate and make healthy. Seems like it should be treason doesn’t it: to make ourselves defenseless in the face of grave danger; selling our means of defense to our enemy. But it’s not … only I don’t understand why not --- oh yeah … the President has broad authority … ain’t that wonderful.
The reason this hits home is: this is from home. When I was in the 7th grade, this atomic facility was being built at Piketon, about 25 miles or less from Portsmouth. Not only was America still in the post war boom, this was a massive facility and my town went from a population of about 25K to 35K almost overnight. You couldn’t go see it; it was all hush-hush. We just knew it was an atomic energy plant. I have seen photos of the site during construction just recently and it is big … really big. Workers and supporting industries moved into town and Portsmouth just boomed. Now, it has shrunk and has been in decline for decades, known now more its population of oxycontin addicts than anything else --- it is now a town of about 20K with much of it being boarded up. Gone is the Detroit Steel mill, Selby Shoe factory, Williams Shoe factory, the largest singly owned RR yards in the US (N& W), a swimming pool the size of a football field, colorful train station and CCC murals, etc. All that you can see now is plywood across old buildings downtown.
'Beyond Belief': Obama Moves to Close Last US Uranium Plant
By David A. Patten
The Obama administration plans to close the last remaining American-owned uranium enrichment facility in the United States, even as it moves forward on a controversial nuclear deal with Iran that permits the Islamic Republic to conduct ongoing and significant uranium enrichment.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has informed Centrus Energy it will end the American Centrifuge project in Piketon, Ohio, on Sept. 30. Notices have been issued to some 235 workers that their jobs are in jeopardy.
"We have concluded that continued support from the federal government for additional data from Piketon operations has limited remaining value," a joint DOE/National Nuclear Security Administration statement said, reports the Chillicothe Gazette.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has informed Centrus Energy it will end the American Centrifuge project in Piketon, Ohio, on Sept. 30. Notices have been issued to some 235 workers that their jobs are in jeopardy.
"We have concluded that continued support from the federal government for additional data from Piketon operations has limited remaining value," a joint DOE/National Nuclear Security Administration statement said, reports the Chillicothe Gazette.
"This is beyond belief," Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, responded in a statement. "While this administration is greenlighting uranium enrichment in Iran and legitimizing 6,000 Iranian centrifuges, they're shutting down domestic production here in America."
Wenstrup called the closure decision "a dangerous threat to our national security."
In its announcement that it will shutter American Centrifuge, the DOE announced the enrichment technologies developed at Piketon may be transferred to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
As recently as 20 years ago, the United States produced nearly 50 percent of the global supply of enriched uranium. Today, however, U.S. production accounts for only about 10 percent of the global supply, with Russia, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Holland producing the bulk of the world's enriched uranium.
One Centrus Energy fact sheet warns: "The United States is at risk of losing its only future capability to enrich uranium to meet key national security needs."
Urenco USA, owned by a consortium of European firms, operates another uranium-enrichment facility in New Mexico.
Noting that Congress has provided full funding for the project, Wenstrup called the DOE's decision, which was announced on Sept 11, "a shameful and unilateral move." Centrus Vice President Steve Penrod reacted to the DOE announcement, saying "obviously we are disappointed."
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said he was "stunned" by the administration's announcement. He met with workers at the plant this weekend to discuss their options.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said the plant is "important to keeping our nation safe and secure for generations to come." He expressed hope the administration could be persuaded to reverse course on a decision that he termed "shortsighted."
Urenco USA, owned by a consortium of European firms, operates another uranium-enrichment facility in New Mexico.
Noting that Congress has provided full funding for the project, Wenstrup called the DOE's decision, which was announced on Sept 11, "a shameful and unilateral move." Centrus Vice President Steve Penrod reacted to the DOE announcement, saying "obviously we are disappointed."
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said he was "stunned" by the administration's announcement. He met with workers at the plant this weekend to discuss their options.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said the plant is "important to keeping our nation safe and secure for generations to come." He expressed hope the administration could be persuaded to reverse course on a decision that he termed "shortsighted."
Without the American Centrifuge Plant, the United States will have to rely on existing supplies of tritium, a radioactive material that about 12.5 years before it decays to the point where it is no longer effective.
Tritium can be used to boost or modulate the yield of a nuclear warhead. Tritium can also be produced by nuclear reactors.
A Centrus Energy fact sheet warns that cuts in U.S. enrichment capability are "potentially causing" U.S. nuclear plants to become dependent on foreign fuel sources. U.S. enriched uranium also plays an important role in powering U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers.
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